Manuals

[Perfect Record]

Not exactly a product suggestion.

For those of us who like to mark up, write in and dog ear our manuals, I like printing a manual and having it handy by the computer.

Could you please eliminate the big orange graphic at the bottom of each page? It takes an enormous amount of ink to print that on every page. The pages come out wrinkled from all the ink. I know that Epson needs the money, but...

While we're talking about manuals, it would be great to get some independent review comments from users to point out places where the manual is not clear to someone approaching Pyramix for the first time. I'll gladly help.

[fl]

When I printed mine out, I went to Kinko's where they had a nice high-speed monochrome laser printer, that managed to do the two sided printing and collating. Add the opportunity to Cirlox bind the result with some nice plastic covers and the telephone book sized result was all set to become a bathroom fixture. Uh, of sorts...

In my more cynical moments, I'd reply that the problems with the manual start around page one and end about roughly page 572 - but that's not really fair. This is, after all, being written by non-native English speakers (I suspect), and is not the highest priority of the programming staff, who are better employed making the code ever better.

What we really need is someone like a Craig Anderton or a David Pogue - someone who is primarily a writer - to become so enamored by the program to want to write the definitive guide. Often this is what it takes - programmers and people involved with the development of the program tend to look at things from the "bottom up" as it were, whereas the new user would benefit most from a "top down", "start with the broad basics and then refine the details as it becomes necessary" kind of approach. Sometimes an outsider sees things that the developers simply take for granted and are blind to. For example, I remember I had been working with the program for months when I discovered that you could do a mixdown to disk in faster than real time with no degradation (unlike a certain other wide spread DAW on the market, which promises certain death unless you sit through your mixdown in real time). I remember having to ask on this forum if it was really true, or was I just projecting my foolish dreams. Once I realized that this was for real, and that everyone took it for granted in the most blazé fashion, I thought to myself, "Hey, they're really burying the lead here - that feature should be trumpeted loud and clear up front for the newbies. Since that time, I've come across a number of features that have smacked me in the forehead - "Well, of course!" - that are really strong benefits of this program over others, but are only hinted at in the manuals. Again, a newcomer's or outsider's viewpoint would be most valuable in bringing these items to the prominence they deserve.

Alas, Pro Tools is sufficiently popular that it has attracted numerous authors to issue their guides and "missing" manuals. But they do fulfill a need - the basic Digidesign Manual leaves a lot to be desired, but the gap has been filled by outsiders responding to the market need. Hopefully, as Pyramix becomes more widely accepted, this will happen for us as well. We can all hope that at some point we'll have a manual that is so clearly laid out, and well written that it becomes more than just a reference, but rather a basic "how to" for the procedures of using a DAW - in much the same way that the Mackie mixer manuals are great primers for beginners getting their heads around the concept of signal flow.

Lately, I've been trying to learn more about the functioning of the Libraries, and certainly this is one area of the manual that could use some improvement, along with its big brother, Media Management. As I look back to my early experiences with the program, I remember that a lot my initial difficulties came simply from the terminology: Tracks, Clips, Selections, Regions - these things exist in other programs, with different names, and I still stumble with getting them straight and not confusing things with how they are named in ProTools. Don't get me started about Playlists, Compositions and the Timeline...

The other difficulty I had as a newcomer was just the sheer wealth of configurability available - by making the placement and display of practically everything in menus, tabs and as buttons all user determined, there seemed to be no solid ground for a beginner to stand. So in a lot of ways, if there needs to be a revision, I'd start with the Quick Start Guide, and provide a terminology translation grid comparing how things are named in Pyramix, with what similar items and functions are called in various other programs. Then I'd define, step by step, some basic procedures: how to set up a session folder, determining where things should go, and then setting up the basic session with tracks, inputs, the mixer, and output. A little more description about how the demo was recorded and edited would have been helpful in the early stages: what all the edits are about, and how the reverb wound up being one single clip..., just a little more background would allow that basic resource to be more informative and of greater instructional benefit for a newcomer. Then, after someone has a handle on simple routing of inputs and outputs, and getting things through the program, possibly doing some basic edits, then the door can be opened to the wider range of what can be configured in any of a zillion different ways.

As it stands, I still peruse my printed copy of the manual, although it is now behind by a couple of versions. The PDF certainly makes searching easier, but it's not foolproof - sometimes it's difficult to come up with the correct search parameters so that you get to the information you need quickly - again, a basic translator/glossary/concordance presenting all the specialized names and terms would go a long way towards ripping the veil of the temple asunder for the humble postulant.

[Nat]

Frank,
You are an excellent writer. I nominate you to be the first to write "Pyramix: What You Need To Know"

Nat Koren
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco, California, USA

[Zorro]

What ho chaps, tally ho!

The native English speaking author of most of Merging Technologies documentation here.

I've only just caught up with this thread and was most amused to read the "non-native English speaker" comment.

More seriously, we pretty much agree with you. There is plenty of room for improvement.

First, you will hopefully have noticed by now that the look of the documents has changed, eliminating the orange footer.

Second, we'd be delighted if any of you would point out areas where things are unclear and missing index entries, cross references etc. We are constantly updating the main User Manual and other documents get updated as and when.

We've also taken on board the comments about more task oriented guides and easier introductions. Watch this space...

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[fl]

Oops.

[Zorro]

Hi Frank,

Glad to see you're looking in.

All contributions most gratefully received.

[aomahana]

Hello there,

Thanks for removing the orange strips.
I am another who likes to have a printed manual to reference.

For me, it is the simple things which would be useful.
It took me months to work out how to convert a PMX file to a WAV file.
Nowhere in the manual does it suggest using the Render function for this, (does it ?).

And libraries ....
I am still to find how to import a WAV file.


Bye now,
aomahana.

[Zorro]

There you go, two more to add to the list. I've an idea it does tell you to use render to convert from WAV to PMX but not so sure about the other way around, I'll check and make it more prominent. Also, will check the WAV into library question. (because I don't know the answer )

[Zorro]

Just been playing with the WAV into library thing. The only way I've found to do it directly so far is to drag and drop from a Windows browser window into, say, the Default Project Library. Obviously, if you place a WAV file on a track it will show up in the Composition Library. A WAV file Clip in the Timeline can also be copied and pasted to a library where it will appear as a part of the Composition.

[Perfect Record]

I had an idea of a Pyramix Wiki, which would be user based, and allow us to post weaknesses in the documentation, and responses from users with answers.

If this infuses into the manual, all the better.

Another idea, perhaps Mr. Zorro, Merging could designate a mail address where we could shoot notes as we find weaknesses in the books.

[Zorro]

Happy New Year all!

By all means I would like to have suggestions and omissions.

Please post them in this thread.

Merging try to avoid using email addresses for this kind of purpose due to the ridiculous volume of spam.

We are in the process of revising the User Manual again so I'm looking forward to any and all contributions!

[fl]

I've been looking for some clarification for the Bus Tools Limiter and the DRC associated with it. The descriptions in the current manual appear to have some typos, and double negatives, so the meaning is not exactly the clearest. Also, some indication would be helpful as to what units of measurement are being expressed in the various boxes - is the Limiter Release in ms.? Is the DRC Velocity also ms.? I'm guessing the numbers for the Curve are just a convenient naming convention, or do they actually have some mathematical relationship to the time. Also, the description for the Offset is particularly in need of a re-write, as the action of the knob and the behaviour of the numbers in the display seem to run in reverse relative to the description in the manual

As far as I can see, the whole DRC section is a sort of "soft knee" setup - perhaps without using the potentially copyrighted term "soft knee" - i.e., just how "spongy" you can make the attack and release of the limiter as the signal approaches, exceeds and then falls below the threshold level. However, the current description in the Manual could certainly use some revision and amplification to make this clearer.

[Graemme]

DRC = Dynamic Release Control = Auto-release

In BusTools, where a lot of the 'attack' is modified is with the 'lookahead delay' control. The integration time of the lookahead' algorithm has a major effect on the 'sound' of the BusTools limiter.

By now, the BusTools limiter is a bit long in the tooth...the same person who developed it is Gael Martinet of Flux and his 'Pure Limiter II' is pretty much the state of the art in limiters not intended to crush the life out of unsuspecting audio.

Graemme

[per]

Hi.
If it’s still possible, I would like to send you my thoughts about the manual:

I regard the current manual as beeing sort of an overview of this very powerful software, where some features are described in fairly good detail, while others are just skimmed. I am fairly shure that there are many features that are not explained at all – or maybe I have just not been able to find them.

My wish would be to have a hard core Reference Manual, where every feature and function is listed and explained, with a simple and clear description on how to use PMX. Knowing the complexity of the program, I imagine this will be a pretty thick manual.

I have the FLUX dynamic processor and the ”manual” for this powerful processor is extremely lightweight. I imagine that most engineers would be happy to get a much more thorough explanation of all its functions. There are two ”Voodoo buttons”; Hysteresis and Angel’s share. Hysteresis is something I can understand perhaps, but the description for
Angel’s Share: to literally open the sound, increase the dynamic impression, keep some crest etc.
is all too Voodooish for me. I really don’t think this kind of description fits a professional tool. And maybe not the button either. I’m the kind of engineer who like to know what I’m doing when creating the mix.


Thanks
Per